


American Archives Month

by alpacamyhedgehog



Series: Librarians of S.H.I.E.L.D. [3]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Library, Gen, Libraries, POV First Person, SHIELD history, archives month
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 19:17:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8502193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alpacamyhedgehog/pseuds/alpacamyhedgehog
Summary: Cora and June, archivists at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s A.C.C.E.S.S. library and research center, write about some of the coolest items they care for in Special Collections, including documents from Director Peggy Carter and Captain America.Originally posted on librariansofshield.tumblr.com





	1. Spotlight on Special Collections

October is American Archives Month, and while we love our Special Collections department year round, we want to take some time to showcase what makes them so…well…special. We’ll share some blog posts throughout the month spotlighting some of our favorite collections and items here.

First, some facts about Special Collections:

**Archives, huh? Sounds like a bunch of old stuff.**

Since S.H.I.E.L.D. is a national intelligence agency that functions on a strict classification system and cheesy acronyms, a good portion of the documents in the library are classified. Special Collections keeps items that are either unclassified or declassified, which means we have a lot of old stuff that also happens to be really exciting. Think Captain America’s sketchbooks, and memos from the desk of Peggy Carter.

We also store S.H.I.E.L.D.’s institutional records–but trust us, they’re anything but boring. Stay tuned to find out why we have a crock-pot and a set of fancy silverware in our institutional record collection!

**So what do S.H.I.E.L.D. archivists do all day?**

A lot, actually! We help people like agents, analysts, and academy students find what they’re looking for–and then keep an eye on them while they research to make sure they don’t damage our stuff. We keep an eye on fragile items and do our best to protect and/or repair them. Another huge part of our job is processing new collections that are donated to us. Moving to the new library annex has been great PR for us, and we’ve gotten a lot of new donations, which has kept us really busy over the past few months.

**Why isn’t most of this stuff available online?**

Some of it is–scans were made of some of the documents in the Steven G. Rogers Collection several years ago, and they are available on our online catalog. Transcriptions of the Carter Papers have also been published as a downloadable ebook.

Most of our collections have not been digitized yet, though. It seems like it should be an easy process to scan or photograph each item and post it online, but digitization actually requires a lot of time and special equipment that we just don’t have right now. Here’s hoping we can get funds for new scanners into the budget for next year, though!

**Special Collections sounds like a fun place! Can I come?**

If you’re a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, you can visit us at the Triskelion’s A.C.C.E.S.S. research center. If you’re a researcher or a curious member of the public, you’ll need to contact us first.

Happy archives month!

–June and Cora, archivists at S.H.I.E.L.D.


	2. Margaret E. Carter Papers

This collection of letters, memos, reports, and other records document former Director Margaret Carter’s career at S.H.I.E.L.D.

After Director Carter retired, her unclassified and declassified papers were collected and published in a multivolume set. A set of the printed collection are kept in Special Collections, along with the original manuscripts.

Some of the papers are still classified, and S.H.I.E.L.D. employees with appropriate clearances may access them in Restricted Files. These documents will be added to Special Collections when they are declassified. 

–June


	3. Steven G. Rogers Collection

After World War II and the founding of S.H.I.E.L.D., Director Carter created the agency’s first archive as a safe place to store both institutional documents and Captain Rogers’s records.

Some items in the collection were in Director Carter’s possession, and others were acquired by S.H.I.E.L.D. Some items, such as photos and letters, were donated more recently by the Barnes family.

The collection includes military and medical records, photographs, correspondence, and a few books, including sketchbooks with Rogers’s original drawings.

The Rogers Collection holds some of our most requested items. Several years ago, scans were made of some of the fragile documents, which we now keep in permanent storage to prevent wear and tear from handling. Digital images of these scans are available for free on the library’s online catalog.

–Cora


	4. James Buchanan Barnes Collection

One of our most underrated archival collections, the Barnes collection is an invaluable resource on the life of Captain America and the SSR days. 

After S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded, Director Carter made Sgt. Barnes an honorary agent to commemorate his role in bringing down Hydra. The Barnes family thought it was fitting to donate his papers to us, which they did in 2007. Since then, although the Barnes collection hasn’t received as much publicity as the Rogers collection, it has played a quiet role in historical research–notably, the 2012 HBO series on the Howling Commandos.

June likes to say that the Rogers collection is regrettably small while the Barnes collection is regrettably large, because the family kept everything. Seriously, everything: photos, correspondence, children’s art, tickets, financial records, school assignments.

Personally, I think June’s just jealous that Sgt. Barnes got better grades in school than she did.

–Cora

 

I am NOT.

-June


	5. SSR Collection

Along with the beginnings of the Rogers collection, the SSR institutional records formed the first S.H.I.E.L.D. archive.

Today, the SSR collection contains records and objects of interest relevant to the years during and immediately after the war.

One of our favorite items in this collection is a very detailed daily journal kept by an SSR agent. While recording everything one does during one’s career as an agent would be a security risk by today’s standards, we’re very happy to have this journal because it gives us some amazing insights into everyday operations at the SSR. The agent retired shortly before S.H.I.E.L.D. was created and left the journal to the archive in his will. Excerpts are used in some S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy classes to teach students what intelligence work was like during the war.

All items in the SSR collection have been declassified and are available on request.

–June


	6. Coulson Memorial Comics Collection

After the death of Agent Phil Coulson in 2012, many of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents raised funds to purchase Coulson’s comics collection for the archive. The whereabouts of the original collection are unknown, so Special Collections has done its best to replicate the titles that we know were in Coulson’s personal library.

Since there were additional funds, A.C.C.E.S.S. has been allowed to acquire more comics within the scope of the library. We have placed subscriptions in Agent Coulson’s name for current series on Captain America and the Avengers. I’ve also been working with Amy and June to find vintage comics that we think Coulson would have wanted to add to the collection.

–Cora


	7. S.H.I.E.L.D. Logo Manuscripts

Part of our institutional records collection is a series of documents and other items related to the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo. Some of these include memos and concept sketches related to logo redesigns over the years.

One of the early sketches from the mid-1980s is literally the Hydra symbol inside a ghostbusters sign. No joke. We assume this was meant to commemorate the SSR’s role in the fall of Hydra during WWII. No documentation is available to indicate what the designer might have been on at the time.

While A.C.C.E.S.S. doesn’t collect all of the S.H.I.E.L.D.-branded items that have been made over the years (just take a look at the Triskelion gift shop and you’ll see why that would be impossible), we have a few products that have been sold over the years in our collection. My personal favorites are a set of S.H.I.E.L.D. logo silverware from the 1970s and a crock pot from the 1990s. 

The crock pot still works, by the way, but since it’s officially stored in Special Collections, using it to cook a pot roast in the library break room is frowned upon.

–June


	8. Our Favorite Things

Hey, everyone! Due to Halloween shenanigans and cleaning up after Halloween shenanigans (we are never letting Frank wear a cape in the library while on a sugar high again), we totally forgot to wrap up our archives month series! In this last post, we’ll each talk a bit about our favorite items in Special Collections.

If you enjoyed this, we hope you’ll check out our friends at the Society of American Archivists to learn more about what archivists do. And as always, we’re happy to talk with you about our work if you have questions!

For me, the high point of working in A.C.C.E.S.S. Special Collections is getting to see some of the cool vintage spy gear that S.H.I.E.L.D. has used over the years. Tiny weapons, tiny recording devices…you name it, we have it.

Did you know there was actually a bug disguised in a fake olive that would have been put in a martini? Yep. It kind of makes me wonder what kind of technology S.H.I.E.L.D. is using now that hasn’t been declassified yet.

Hmm…maybe I’ll get some security clearances and find out!

–Cora

 

It’s always exciting to find a mystery in the archives, and my current favorite is a small collection of antique books on spycraft that turned up when I was moving materials from the old archive to the new Special Collections department. They weren’t in the catalog, and I had no idea they were there.

They’re mostly 19th century volumes, but one dates back to the 18th century. A few of them have Chester Phillips’ name written inside.

We aren’t sure where these books came from or how they came to be in the S.H.I.E.L.D. archive. Amy, who somehow seems to know more about the agency’s early days than I do, thinks these books aren’t really Col. Phillips’ style but he donated them to S.H.I.E.L.D. hoping that someone here might be able to use them.

As they’ve been hiding away for who knows how long, they aren’t in great shape. My next project is going to involve deciding how to care for them. I might even get to do some conservation work!

–June

P.S. For the record, I thought Frank’s cape-venger antics were hilarious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! If you're curious about the librarians' Halloween adventures (including Amy's struggle to find a costume that wouldn't make her look like a raging Captain America fangirl), check out their blog at librariansofshield.tumblr.com :)


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